As known to those skilled in the related art, a keyword search method is the most general search service method performed in a system providing a search result list. In case that a keyword is input from a user, the search result providing system for providing keyword search services like above provides a user terminal with search results (e.g., a web site including the keyword, an article including the keyword, an image with a file name including the keyword, etc) including the keyword.
According to conventional method and system for providing a search result list like above, generally, in providing a search result list with respect to a particular keyword input from a user terminal, at least one content is sorted in order of a registration date or accuracy computed on the basis of a predetermined accuracy computing algorithm. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate one example for a search result list processed by the conventional method of providing a search result list like above.
Referring to FIG. 1, in general methods providing a search result list, there is illustrated a method for providing at least one searched content “in order of registration time” after searching for contents including a predetermined keyword.
In addition, in general methods providing a search result list, FIG. 2 illustrates a method for providing at least one searched content “in order of accuracy” after searching for contents including a predetermined keyword. In the prior art, methods providing at least one content “in order of accuracy” like above adopt the following method. First, it is searched how many input keyword queries are included in a corresponding content. Through the search like above, frequency that the keyword appears in the content, a location where the keyword appears within the content, structure of a relevant content document, and the like are transformed into numeric values. At this time, it is performed on the basis of the length of the content, a link depth, a degree of link, a degree of being linked, popularity, information on components of the content (whether the content is an adult content or a spam content), and the like. In addition, input of recommendation data by a corresponding content provider may be reflected to compute accuracy, based on embodiment. For example, an editor recommendation content of a search engine operator may be embodied to increase exposure frequency with respect to the content in such a manner that an editor adjusts a numeric value of accuracy with respect to service items or recommendations of the company upon input of the content. The aforementioned information are individually analyzed to be transformed into numeric values in accordance with a predetermined algorithm and data transformed into numeric values are normalized to be defined as values between 0 and 1 (or between 0% to 100%). At this time, the defined values like above may be used as accuracy data.
The aforementioned methods providing a search result list may be arranged into two methods:
(1) after searching for contents by using keyword queries and computing accuracy, sorting at least one searched content on the basis of results of accuracy values; and
(2) after searching for contents by using keyword queries and computing accuracy, sorting at least one content having results of accuracy values on the basis of information of a date registered to a content registration database (or input time information of the content).
According to method and system for providing a search result list in the prior art, in case of contents in which time is a very important component, such as news contents, or in case of knowledge search contents with opportuneness, there is a problem that it is difficult to find out accurate search results only with an accuracy-based sort or a registration date based sort. As for one example, in case that a user searches for the aforementioned opportune contents by using a keyword ‘patent’, according to the conventional method providing a search result list, a search result list may be read only in order of accuracy or in order of the registration date. Thus, the user has to read the search result list in which accuracy with respect to the keyword ‘patent’ is high, however, search results are not sorted in order of the registration date. Otherwise, the user has to read the search result list in which searched results with respect to the keyword ‘patent’ are sorted in order of registration date, however, not sorted in order of accuracy. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that the user may have to search for several pages of the search result list to find out wanted contents.
As for another example, in case that a user wants to use web contents (web page contents, news contents, knowledge search contents, etc) with respect to what ‘the latest popular movies’ are, according to the conventional method providing a search result list, a search result list may be sorted in order of accuracy without reflecting a concept of time on popular movies and then provided for the user. Otherwise, the search result list may be sorted in order of the registration date without reflecting a concept of accuracy on popular movies and then provided for the user. Thus, there is a problem that it is difficult for the user to be provided with wanted search results. Accordingly, problems like above have caused lots of inconveniences and discontents to users who want to search for a more accurate search result list a little faster.
Furthermore, in case of mobile search services using personal portable terminals which are recently widely used, users have to read a search result list for a long time to find out wanted contents. Thus, there is a problem that unnecessary communication costs increase.
Because of the aforementioned problems, in a method for providing a search result list, in service now, there is required a more advanced method for providing a search result list, enabling users to search for wanted information in an initial search result list.